“To throw away an honest friend is, as it were, to throw your life away”
“I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality and then in retrospect.”
“Fear? What has a man to do with fear? Chance rules our lives, and the future is all unknown. Best live as we may, from day to day.”
“Time, which sees all things, has found you out.”
“How dreadful the knowledge of the truth can be
When there’s no help in truth.”
“Alas, how terrible is wisdom
when it brings no profit to the man that's wise!
This I knew well, but had forgotten it,
else I would not have come here.”
“The tyrant is a child of Pride
Who drinks from his sickening cup
Recklessness and vanity,
Until from his high crest headlong
He plummets to the dust of hope.”
“The truth is what I cherish and that's my strength”
“Oblivion - what a blessing...for the mind to dwell a world away from pain.”
“All my care is you, and all my pleasure yours.”
“How terrible-- to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees!”
“In time you will know this well: For time, and time alone, will show the just man, though scoundrels are discovered in a day. ”
“Let every man in mankind's frailty consider his last day; and let none presume on his good fortune until he find Life, at his death, a memory without pain.”
“...count no man happy till he dies, free of pain at last.”
“Those who jump to conclusions may go wrong.”
“The pain we inflict upon ourselves hurt most of all.”
“Whatever is sought for can be caught, you know, whatever is neglected slips away.”
“It's perfect justice: natures like yours are hardest on themselves.”
“Weep not, everything must have its day.”
“Never honor the gods in one breath and take the gods for fools the next.”
“They are dying, the old oracles sent to Laius, now our masters strike them off the rolls. Nowhere Apollo's golden glory now -- the gods, the gods go down.”
“And if you find I've lied, from this day on call the prophet blind.”
“Give me a life wherever there is an opportunity to live, and better life than was my father's.”
“Despite so many ordeals, my advanced age and the nobility of my soul make me conclude that all is well.”
“(...) I, for one, prize less
The name of king than deeds of kingly power;
And so would all who learn in wisdom’s school.”
“It is but sorrow to be wise when wisdom profits not.”
“يا أجيال البشر، إنكم من وجهة نظري لستم سوى أشباح فإن الواحد منكم يحصل على نصيب من السعادة لا يتعدى المظهر الخادع، ثم ما يلبث أن يذبل ويختفي.”
“فمن الأفضل لك ،إذا كنت ستواصل حكم هذه المدينة،كما تحكمها الآن، أن تحكمها وهي مليئة بالبشر، لا خالية منهم
فإن أي برج أو سفينة لا يكون له قيمة إذا كان خالياً من البشر الذين يعيشون داخله.”
“A sight to touch e’en hatred’s self with pity.”
“King as thou art, free speech at least is mine. To make reply; in this I am thy peer.”
“Happiness is a choice and a state of mind.”
“Sage would survive. I'd survive. We were better off apart. Painful and quick, just like ripping off a Band-Aid. Well, more like gouging a piece of shrapnel out of my stomach, pouring a bottle of gin into the wound, lighting it on fire, and sewing my guts up with a dirty bootlace. But the concept was the same.”
“Madle named names. Some were on my list and some were not. Those that were not I assumed to be spear carriers. Tally had been well and reliably scouted. The last corpse went out. I gave Madle a small gold piece. He goggled. His customers regarded him with unfriendly eyes. I grinned. “For services rendered.” Madle blanched, stared at the coin. It was a kiss of death. His patrons would think he had helped set the ambush. “Gotcha,” I whispered. “Want to get out of this alive?” He looked at me in fear and hatred. “Who the hell are you guys?” he demanded in a harsh whisper. “The Black Company, Madle. The Black Company.” I don’t know how he managed, but he went even whiter.”
“Recently there came a period when I had little to do. This was novel in a life so crammed with busy years, and I decided to amuse myself by writing a novel that was pure science fiction. In the hard-driven times between 1930 and 1950, I was a professional writer not simply because it was my job, but because I wanted to finance more serious researches. In those days there were few agencies pouring out large grants to independent workers. Despite what you might hear about Roosevelt “relief,” those were depression years. One succeeded or one starved.”
“Suddenly the images in the center of the room became more than images. They solidified.”
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